According to reports, the ECB will move to officially ban Greek banks from increasing their holdings of the country’s short-term sovereign debt, in a bid to break a potentially toxic link between lenders and the stricken sovereign.

The restriction will place a further squeeze on the cash-strapped Greek government, which could run out of money to pay wages and pensions by the end of next month.

Speaking to the European Parliament on Monday, Mario Draghi denied the ECB was acting unfairly towards the Leftist government: “We haven’t created any rule for Greece, rules were in place and they’ve been applied,” said Mr Draghi.

The central bank has so far rebuffed pleas to increase the issuance of treasury bills or to resume its ordinary lending to the country.

This toughened stance led to criticism from Athens who accuse the institution of “asphyxiating” the country.

In a letter addressed to the German Chancellor and Mr Draghi, Alexis Tsipras warned the Bank’s stance could turn a “small cash flow issue” into a “large problem for Greece and for Europe.”

Athens is also due to request a return of €1.2bn which was erroneously handed to creditors from a European rescue fund, as it races to avoid bankruptcy and make its debt obligations of €450m to the IMF over the next few weeks.

But the ECB’s fresh curb comes as depositors have rushed to withdraw their money from Greek banks.

Capital flight amounted to an estimated €1.5bn (£1.1bn) in the last week alone. To plug the hole, lenders have been reliant on an expensive form of emergency liquidity assistance (ELA) to keep them afloat.

A review of ELA funding from the ECB's governing council is due on Wednesday. The ECB has been drip feeding small increments of cash to the banks, much to the frustration of the Greek government.

Capital flight is due to be stemmed for one day at least, as Wednesday is a bank holiday celebrating the Greek independence from the yoke of 19th century Ottoman rule.

Mario Draghi has insisted ECB will lift pressure on Greece once it commits to completing its bail-out programme

The move came as Mr Tsipras rounded off his first official visit to Germany on Tuesday. Greece's premier has been seeking to assure Europe’s largest creditor his government would submit proposals forvital reforms by the beginning of next week.

But despite the attempt to repair relations, a number of prominent international voices raised concerns about the country’s long-term future in the eurozone.

Chancellor George Osborne warned a series of"missteps" and "misjudgements" could force Greece out of the 19-nation bloc as “ill will” between the two sides has grown in recent weeks.

Veteran investor George Soros, a long-time critic of the disciplinarian stance of the northern creditor bloc, said the Greek episode represented a “lose-lose” scenario for Europe.

“The best that can happen is actually muddling through,” said Mr Soros.

“Greece is a long-festering problem that was mishandled from the beginning by all parties.”